Grave Encounters
by Overwatch Trooper 12
Summary: When the mechanics fail to function on their ship, Kuromorimine calls for help from a nearby abandoned school ship. After searching the vessel, Black Forest Peak returns to their ship, bringing with them a dreaded disease. As chaos floods the ship, the surviving Sensha-do team members flee from Kuromorimine. However, a restless threat from the past returns to haunt them all.
1. Chapter 1 - Lost At Sea

**Author's Note: Greetings to all my fellow readers. Since it's summer and I'm always usual home, I felt that since I have more time on my hands that I can be able to do two stories at once. The timing of my other FanFic might take longer to complete since I'm working on this one, but I felt that I can't let this story concept go to waste. Please enjoy this new story and I'll try my best to maintain the progress of both of my FanFic's in the future.**

**Thank you and enjoy.**

* * *

INTRODUCTION

* * *

Here I am...

I never thought that something like this can happen. I pictured our mighty school vessel sailing to the next docking port on the main land, to be refueled and restocked in safety, but instead we took our chances at stopping something that we couldn't accomplish. Kuromorimine Girls High School: the most elite Panzerkraft school in the nation of Japan, has encountered a problem that we couldn't face on our own. It was a threat that seemed invisible until now, where it's visible to every eye that can see it. The might of our community has become broken and in disorder, our academy is unorganized and scattered and the will to do our best has become a thing of the past. I still ask myself how this all happened and all I can say is that it was our curiosity that drove us to step aboard that unknown threat of a school ship.

All of a sudden, when we returned home, it began to spread. Nothing was getting done and everyone was in their own hiding place. Many said that it was so-close to them, that it was waiting for them at their front door.

It probably was. It was swift, terrifying, and the sight of it was unbearable. Then, it got quiet. We fled from our home, thinking that their was no hope for anyone left aboard. We recently witnessed something that our team, our powerful and confident tankery team, could not stop. It's a nightmare right now and I feel that if we aren't saved, we will soon become the non-existent.

I still wonder exactly how many members of my team our still alive out there. I imagine how exhausted and scared they are right now and how their confidence at fighting this threat had long past depleted. I wonder how many girls out there are in the same situation that I'm in right now, trapped behind a stainless steel door inside a small dark enclosed iron chamber. I'm not one that's claustrophobic, but if I remain in the state that I'm in now, it will slowly begin to fiddle around with my sanity.

I don't know what to do? My teams scattered and my mother is missing. On top of that, the enemy threat is literally outside this door and if I open it, the threat will have no sympathy at dragging me out and making sure that I pay the price for what happened to it in it's past. I feel helpless, weak and petrified. There's no fight left in me, no will to want to try and eliminate this threat. I'd rather run away from it as fast as my legs could carry me than take it on by myself. My eyes hurt, my skin crawls and my conscience filled with fear.

I AM TRULY AFRAID...

* * *

**-GRAVE ENCOUNTERS: A GIRLS UND PANZER HORROR STORY-**

**-BY: OVERWATCH TROOPER 12-**

**-RATED: FICTION M-**

* * *

CHAPTER 1 - Lost At Sea

* * *

**-Four Days Earlier-**

There was a violent storm on the sea the night before the sighting. The waves below the Kuromorimine school vessel struck the sides of the bottom of the ship's hull. The rain poured down on the surface of the ship's population, causing large puddles in the streets. Flooding in the hills of the ship, caused the green landscape of the woodland portion to become soaked in muddy earth and water. In the sky, clouds of black and grey shades formed while thunder and lighting flashed over the angry sea.

Maho Nishizumi, was standing at the closed window of her dorm when she heard a knock at her door. Slightly opening the door, she came face to face with Erika Itsumi, the Vice-Captain of the Kuromorimine Sensha-do team.

"What's the matter?" Maho asked.

"I was wondering if we could speak about something for a moment?" Erika asked in return.

"Is it about the storm?"

Erika nodded her head.

"Come in." Maho said while opening the door all the way.

The two settled themselves down in two chairs looking out the window of Maho's dorm. The rainwater splashing and spraying the glass lense of the window.

"Do you think that we'll reach land by morning, Kommandant? The storm is becoming heavier by the hour."

"This ship is strong, we will have no trouble at all."

Another flash of lighting was seen on the horizon, it appeared to have struck the sea from the distance that the two girls could see.

"I haven't seen a storm like this one in a while, it's a good thing that the bridge knows where their navigating us to."

"Don't worry, my friend." Maho said, "We'll be fine. It's getting late anyways, we will sleep through all of this anyhow."

"Yes, Kommandant." Erika replied.

"Is there anything else you want to talk about?" Maho asked.

Erika looked down at her wristwatch. The numbers, **9:00** **PM**,were flashing back at her.

"Do you think that we'll be able to practice tomorrow?"

"Probably not. With this amount of rain coming down, the training field will be a mess in the morning." Maho predicted.

"I guess that means more book work then."

"It's still education. It's better than having no education at all."

"You do have a point, Kommandant." Erika turned to Maho.

"Hm. You better get going. The staff don't like students in the halls a this hour." Maho got up from her chair and went over to her bedside.

"Right. I will see you in the morning." Erika said walking out of Maho's dorm.

The young Nishizumi heir went to the door and closed it behind her. While in her bed that night, Maho thought that she heard a hard screeching sound coming from below the floor but she thought nothing of it besides mechanical movement from inside the vessels lower decks below. When the next day had finally dawned, the students prepared to go to their first period classes when a voice came over the intercom.

"Attention to all students and staff, due to a mechanical failure that has occurred last night, our journey to our mainland port has been temporarily delayed. Please continue the ordinary bell schedule and attend all of your classes."

The students in the halls were stunned by the response. Though they all knew that there was a storm the night before, they never thought that their machines would fail to operate afterwards. When Maho got to her first period class, she noticed that everyone was looking out the window.

"Strange? What's got everyone's attention?" she wondered.

After walking over to the window, she found what the students were looking at. Most of the field where other sports practice was completely flooded with knee-high water. A few faculty members were shuffling around in the water, searching for something.

"I never thought that the storm was that bad last night." a student said in the cluster.

"Yeah!" exclaimed another student, "It's like a typhoon came through or something."

At the same moment, the teacher walked in and everyone went to their seats. When tankery practice came, all the girls went to the upstairs gymnasium and waited for Shiho to arrive. When she came in, all the girls sat in the bleachers.

"Students, as you know, the incident last night has caused a large amount of flood water to cover the entire ship. Even though the water level has fallen since earlier this afternoon, we are still going to avoid practice today."

Suddenly, a girl pushed open the same double doors that Shiho came through. The instructor turned and silently asked her what was the problem. After the two had finished talking, the girl left.

"Please excuse me students, I must make a quick run to the office. Please behave yourselves before I return."

Then she left the gym. The crowd of students began to chat amongst one another. Maho and Erika did the same.

"The whole day has been a little strange, don't you think?"

"Yes, very strange. Every class I've been in, there's been some sort of interruption of some kind."

Erika lifted her head in a downward direction.

"Who's the new kid?" asked Erika.

Maho turned around to see a girl sitting by herself. Her long hair was a black with a curl in front of each ear and she had a light blue eye color.

"I don't know? She must have joined our class today or something."

"She seems like a good tanker." Erika commented.

"What makes you say that?" Maho turned back.

"Her eyes look like they're determined to fight."

"We don't know that? I will talk to her though." claimed Maho as she got up to move.

Meanwhile, the front office was in a rush, sorting through papers and maps. Shiho was talking with two other woman as the chaos was happening.

"What do you mean 'Our radar navigation is offline'? Does that mean we can't detect anything outside this general area?"

"Yes." said one of the women, "Our troubleshooting team can't seem to find the problem."

"If we can't get the main turbines for the engine started, we could be in serious trouble." Shiho said impatiently.

On another end of the room, a girl came into the offices. After whistling for everyone's attention, all the staff asked what was wrong.

"There's another school vessel nearby! Come and see it!" she exclaimed running back the other way.

All the women hustled behind her to the observation deck. Surely enough, there was another smaller school ship floating next to them. On the side of the vessel was a giant emblem and the schools name. The words spelt, **SEAWIDE ****JUSTICE** **GIRLS ACADEMY**. The emblem under it was a black circle with two long yellow wheat stalks surrounding a yellow star and a yellow even balancing scale in the middle.

"Wait! Isn't that the missing girls academy from the Nineteen Eighties?"

Shiho's eyes wided, "I remember fighting their Panzerkraft team once." she said to herself.

"You know them?" the girl next to her curiously asked.

"Indeed. Kuromorimine used to take them on very often back in the day. Then they went missing back in Nineteen Eighty Six and nobody heard from them since. The media tried looking for them but they were nowhere to be found."

"Wow. Until now we've found them." the girl looking fascinated at the ship responded.

When she turned back, Shiho was gone. In the bridge, all the leading ship engineers were over by the radio, tapping into a station to communicate with the other vessel.

"Come in, Seawide Justice do you copy?"

There was no response over the radio but static.

"I say again, is there anyone on the line. This is Kuromorimine Girls High School vessel calling to Seawide Justice Girls Academy, do you read?"

Once more, there was no response except static over the radio. The room was completely silent say for the humming of electricity coming from the bridge's machines. The adults look at each other with blank stares.

"No surprise, that ship has been abandoned for about 20 years. What makes you think that they'll be someone aboard?"

"Question all you want, we need to investigate." Shiho turned and left the bridge.

The other women shrugged their shoulders. When she returned to the gym, the students crowded around her with curiosity.

"What happened up there, Mrs. Nishizumi?" one girl asked.

"What did you see, Instructor?" another girl asked.

"Girls, please calm down. Prepare yourselves, we are going aboard."

The girls looked at each other with confused faces. They had no idea where they were going nor what their discovery on the Seawide Justice school vessel would unleash.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Boarding Parties

CHAPTER 2 - The Boarding Parties

* * *

Within minutes after the word to get ready, the tankery teams were on their way to the giant tank shed. The air outside was chilling, as cold moisture began to settle on the girls' faces. The sky above was overcast, if not darker than usual for the daytime. The thick grey clouds in the sky have blocked out the sun to where it was totally hidden in the sky. On the ground, the water from the rain felt freezing under the shoes of the students as they treaded across the campus. There even appeared to be small balls of white hail on the ground as well, covering parts of the nearby field and turning it into a hazard zone. When she looked up into the sky, Erika was treated to a small white particle that landed on her nose.

The particle was powdery and felt crunchy under her fingers, "Snow." she said to herself.

She turned to Maho who was nearby and asked her if she had seen snow falling on the ground. She shook her head and kept walking on. By the time that they've gone across campus to the garages, some of the colder girls were in a slightly sour mood. Shiho approached the giant double doors and unlocked them with a specialized key. The doors flung open and a flash of warm air whooshed outward towards everyone.

"Listen up, you have five minutes to prepare yourselves before we board the other vessel." Shiho announced.

"Excuse me but could you tell us what school vessel that we are boarding?"

"You will find out when you board it." the woman clarified again, "Now, not all of your tanks will be boarding. I will choose myself the eight crews that are going aboard, the others must stay here till school gets out.

The Panzerkraft team began to form into their groups. While preparing her tank and giving orders to her crew, Maho noticed the new girl that she was talking to earlier observing the tank lineup. Feeling somewhat responsible, she walked over to the student.

"I never thought that you guys had such a huge arsenal of tanks?" the girl said in awe.

"Yeah, and our crews are some of the best in the country as well." Maho added.

"That must feel great, to know that you guys will always have a high ranking tankery team."

"It sort of does." Maho said without trying to have a boastful tone.

"Anyways, I haven't told you my name yet, haven't I?" the girl asked.

"I believe you haven't."

"Right, my name is Tammy, Tammy Matsumoto."

"Maho Nishizumi."

"That's right! I remember watching you on television. You are a great commander for your team and you always have lead them to victory."

"With the exception of last year." Maho suddenly said.

"Well, there's always next year." Tammy smiled.

Both of the girls realized that Shiho was right behind them.

"Maho, are you ready for deployment?" she asked sternly.

"Yes I am. However, Tammy Matsumoto here doesn't have a crew or a tank assigned to her, though."

Shiho looked at Tammy straight in the eye, which caused the new girl to slightly shiver. It seemed that the feeling that she was being introduced to a person high in leadership always made her nervous. Tammy waited for a response from the Instructor.

"Tell me, Tammy. Are you new to our team?"

"Yes, Miss." she said shyly.

"Hmm... Very well, you may ride along with Nishizumi Maho and her crewmates here until you are assigned a permanent role in our class." Shiho concluded before walking away.

Tammy let out a sigh of relief, "Is she always strict like that?" she whispered.

"You'll get use to it overtime. Don't worry yourself too much about it."

A few minutes later, all the crews were in their vehicles and ready to depart. Lining up in a single file, Shiho chose which vehicles that will roll onto Seawide Justice Girls Academy.

"The following eight vehicles will be boarding: The Tiger I, the Tiger II, the Jagdpanther, the Panzer III, these two Panthers and these two Jagdpanzer IV's."

Half of the girls in the garage groaned when they heard the response. The other eight teams that were chosen were all glad to get some sort of freedom away from the class. Pretty soon after, the tankery teams followed Shiho as she was escorted via car to the vessels connecting platform. Since there was no land port in miles, they used this platform to latch onto another school ship and gain access to it. When the two platforms finished connecting to each other, the vehicles proceeded onto the Seawide Justice school carrier.

Along the way, the girls looked out towards the ocean. The first thing that many of them noticed were the large chunks of ice that were floating on the surface of the water and the mass of giant glaciers in the far distance. A light layer of snow was coming down from the dark cloudy daytime sky above.

"Where in the world are we?" Erika asked over the radio in amazement.

"Somewhere north." chimed in a girl from one of the Panther crews.

Maho joined in, "Too far north. The storm must of blown us away from the mainland and up more into the Northern Pacific."

"Don't say that, Kommandant. We can't be up that far north." insisted Jagdpanther-Chan.

Maho didn't reply back. By then, the tanks were halfway across the platform crossing.

"Where were we really going in the first place?" Tammy asked to Maho from inside the Tiger.

"Well, our ship was planning on stopping at a vessel resupply port in Kushiro in the Hokkaido Prefecture, but it appears that the typhoon has blown us father north than we anticipated. Now, we are stuck here with a faulty mechanical failure and another school ship."

"This all sounds strange, don't you think?"

"Absolutely. Plus, it's quite cold out here and I'm not so enthusiastic about it."

While traveling on the side piece of the Seawide Justice carrier, Maho noticed some pretty weird things. The railing on the side of the ship had appeared to have rusted off its hinges and pieces of the iron walls were partially loose, to expose old machinery that was located on the sides. The teams followed Shiho's transport into an upward tunnel, in which everyone turned on their lights when traveling through. All over the walls, cobwebs and rust patches had formed and the road below was torn up and bumpy from years without maintenance.

"Man, this place kinda creepy." echoed the voice of the Panzer III commander through the tunnel.

The upward tunnel finally ended as the tanks entered the very top deck of the enormous carrier. Though it was slightly bigger than Ooarai's, it still looked like a miniature toy compared to Kuromorimines Graf Zeppelin. The city was covered in snow and sleet, with most of the houses and tall buildings that have begun to fall apart. A street pole was knocked over and lying in the middle of an intersection as Black Forest approach it and at the end of the street was a tall roadblock fence, that blocked the road ahead from letting cars pass through it. Old signs and banners written in Japanese were on buildings, telling people not to enter them or to stay out of them.

Finally, Shiho stopped the vehicle that she was in and told the tanks behind her to halt. All the teams stopped in the middle of a roundabout street and exited from their vehicles, getting a better glimpse at the environment around them. The Sensha-do Instructor came forth with a few other girls in the vehicle that she was riding in.

"The vessel that your standing on belonged to a school that is no longer functional. The reason why your here is find out if there is any kind of help that could support our problem back on Kuromorimine."

"You want us to go look for someone that could help us?" one of the girls curiously asked.

"Correct, but I'm going to lay out a few regulations before you wander off. First, if your team is driving in the tank and you want to explore on foot, park the vehicle nearby and don't wander too far away from it. Second, don't go into any places that look hazardous or have objects that could hurt you. This includes any rooms with things broken in it or shattered."

The girls all felt like they were getting a safety lesson from a strict teacher on the first day of school, yet as annoyed as some were, they let their instructor talk anyways.

"Lastly, if you come in some sort of contact with an unknown individual on your search, escort them politely to your teams tank and ride them back here. I will register any newcomers that are found by you. Very well, you are free to search with these rules in mind."

When the girls were sent out, Erika joined up with Maho's Tiger with her Tiger II, "Let me ask you something, Kommandant? The Instructor just told us that we are free to go on his ship wherever we please, right?"

"Did you even listen to her, because it sounds like you didn't." Maho ordered her team to drive until they wanted to check out something, "This apparently is a search. If we were free to go where we pleased, then she wouldn't have given us all those rules."

"What do you think happened here?" Tammy wondered.

"Not sure." Maho replied, "Looks like a derelict if you as me."

Erika gave her a confused look, "A what?"

"A Ghost Ship. The school vessel got abandoned by it's population, everyone deserted it, and probably just left it behind for some kind of reason. I know the Japanese government doesn't talk much about them but I know that there are some out there."

Tammy joined in, "What do you think happened to all the people then?"

"Probably evacuated long ago or..." the Commander's voice trailed off for a moment as she looked up into the cold dark sky, "Or some other reason...Who knows?"

The Vice-Captain rolled her eyes to the response, "So let me get this straight. We're exploring a decelent school ship and looking for people that could have been left behind, is that right Kommandant?"

"Sounds about right." said one of Erika's crew members.

"This has our Instructors name written all over it."

Back at the roundabout, Shiho came over to the group of four girls that rode along with her.

"The reason why you are all here is to search for something else. You all are intelligent young women that know a great deal about machinery, so the Head-Mistress has instructed me to tell you the parts that the carrier needs to get mechanical movement again."

Shiho reached into the car they were in and brought out a folded map, "This map shows the exact location of where the parts we need are located at. Just follow the direct path from start to finish and should no problem looking for what you need to collect."

"Yes ma'am." the girls answered back.

"We all have approximately three hours on this vessel to complete our tasks, so you should have no trouble on time. When you have acquired the parts that we need, return immediately back here. Please don't get separated from each other or wander off all by yourselves. I don't need to tell you that this ship is old and could be very dangerous. The last thing I need is to send out a search party to go look for a search party, do you understand?"

The girls agreed and began on their way. Meanwhile, Maho, Erika and both of their crews stopped in front of the Seawide Justice Girls Academy campus. The front buildings were blackened, as it looked like the building had caught on fire a long time ago. The brick outline of the buildings design was missing a few bricks from it, showing the open holes of where the brick was inserted during construction. Most of the windows were missing glass or were completely barren. Driving further into the campus, the teams noticed that one of the buildings' walls were missing a huge chunk of concrete, exposing two floors of classrooms that were stably in place.

"Wow, this place looks wrecked. Should we investigate, Maho-san?"

"Fine but stay close." she instructed.

The two German steel vehicles parked right next to each other on the walkway.

"You coming along?" Erika asked her team.

"No way! It's cold out there and its warmer in here." said the Tiger II's driver.

Erika grunted as she closed the top hatch as she exited. The ground was almost covered in snow that was coming down from above. Maho, her and Tammy all started to walk into one of the school buildings. The hallway was empty, excepted the lockers on the sides of the hall that were either opened or missing a door. When Tammy took a step forward into the hall, a large patch of dust rose from her step.

"This place is filthy as all can be." she commented.

"This whole bloody campus looks like it's been abandoned for years."

"Lets see if we can find more around here." Maho said coming into the hall.

The three began to search in each classroom, going up stairs to different floors and investigating its surroundings. Each room seemed the same to them and none of the rooms contained any forms of life. After going down another hallway, Tammy heard a noise coming from a huge pitch black room.

"Do you hear that?" Tammy whispered.

The sound was a sort of static noise that was mixed with the sound of heavy breathing. It was coming from a corner in the dark room. Tammy took a step forward inside to see if she could identify what was making the noise.

"See anything in there?" Maho whispered as she widened her eyes to adjust to the gloomy darkness.

"I can't see a thing, I'm as blind as a bat without a light."

Looking around for something useful, Maho found a random road flare on the floor next to her feet.

"What a coincidence, a Roadside Signal Flare. Wonder what that's doing in a school building?"

After undoing the cap, she sparked it up and offered it to Tammy. The new girl threw the flare into the corner of the room where the sound was coming from. There was nothing there, except a plastic black roller chair sitting in the corner. Still hearing the sound, Tammy wondered closer to where the sound was the loudest, but there wasn't a soul in sight. Picking up the flare, the girl began to wonder back over to the other two.

"I couldn't find anything in there."

"Don't worry about it then." Erika said rubbing her arms, "It's cold and I want to move on."

"Very well." Maho turned back to Tammy, who still was holding the lit flare, "Dispose of that when we get outside."

As the three walked down the hall, the noise became louder in Tammy's ears. Suddenly, she fell down and hit the floor hard. Erika and Maho turned back to see that their apprentice had fallen.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. It felt like someone pushed me though."

"Maybe it's the wind? It's beginning to pick up." Erika guessed.

The girl got back to her feet, "Forget it, lets just get out of here." Tammy said catching up.

She took one last look at the room entrance behind her before going down the stairs. The group came back to their two tanks and the other crew members all began to ask what they saw up there. Then, the two Commanders told their crews to start up the tanks again to leave.

"Should we go look in the tank garage, Kommandant?" asked Maho's Driver.

"Sure, we've still got two hours on our hands." replied the Commander to her team.

The tanks continued onwards towards the edge of campus, where they found a big tank garage. A large banner with the words: "KEEP OUT!" was hanging over the doors. Erika saw that the twin iron doors were secured by a huge padlock between them.

"How are we going to get that open?"

"We have a spare shell down here, Kommandant. We could use that." suggested the Tiger I Loader."

"Go ahead and use it."

The Gunner peered through the gunner scope and fired the shell into the padlock. The giant piece of iron fell to the ground with a heavy thud and the crew from the Tiger II helped open the doors. Inside, there was a large piece of the garage that was darkened and another part that was lit. In the middle, the roof above had collapsed and blocked the way for vehicles to drive down the main path. A humongous patch of overcast light was coming through the hole. The teams got out of the tanks and began looking through the Tank Hangar.

All that was visible to the girls were the empty shells of three Panzer IV's tanks lying to the sideline and an unfinished KV-1 hull without treads to their left. The rest of the vehicles in the garage were covered up by green tarps. The sight of the place was eerie and quiet, say for the sound of the wind howling in the distance. The distinct smell of oil was in the air.

One of the crew members broke the silence, "Well, this is boring as all could be."

Erika glared at the girl who quickly began to stop talking.

"Lets go then, there's nothing we can do here." spoke another crew member.

"Anywhere else you girls want to look at before I make my choice of destination?" Maho offered.

Tammy was somewhat baffled by the fact that Maho always spoke with a broad sophisticated selection of words. The crew said nothing.

"Then lets meet up with a few of the other teams and see if they found anything."

"Wait!" Tammy suddenly blurted out, "I apologize but could we investigate the forest portion of the ship? There might be something interesting we could find there?"

"That's okay for me. You girls disagree to the idea?" Maho asked.

"Nope." replied the Tiger I's driver.

"Alright then, lets roll out."

As the tanks prepared to take off, Erika called to Maho over the roaring of the tank motors, "We are going to check out the rest of the campus, you want to come?!"

"No thanks, we're going to check out someplace else!" she called back to Erika."

Erika only saluted before telling her team to move. As the Tiger I began heading towards the hills and wooded area, Tammy thought that she saw a girl scowling at her from one of the windows in the distant school buildings, but she thought of it otherwise. The snow above, was starting to come down a little faster as the heavy tank entered the frost covered woods.


	3. Chapter 3 - A Dilemma Is Dawning

CHAPTER 3 - A Dilemma Is Dawning

* * *

The Four Mechanical Girls opened an electrical sliding door that led down to another large chamber. Within the time that they've wandered from the surface to now, they have almost travelled to the lowest levels of the ship. With the creaking of another door, the girls stepped into a ginormous room that was full of machinery and old broken monitors. The leader of the four, a girl named Emi, shined her light on the walls and located a light switch near the door, but to nobody's surprise, did not activate any of the lights.

"Figures. Hey, Hanoka? Do you see any light sources?"

"No. Do you, Rie?" Hanoka asked in return.

"Negative. Just dusty old machines and monitors." she said, "What about you, Noriko?"

There was no sound of the girl who was named Noriko.

"Noriko? Where are you?" Rie asked again, "Man, she's not here."

"What do you mean Noriko is not here?" Emi raised her eyebrow.

"She was here a minute ago, but now she's gone."

"Just wait for her, then." Emi responded with an irritated replied.

"Don't worry about her Rie, she's probably just looking for one of the parts." Hanoka said with a more gentler tone.

"Help me with this please." Emi struggled.

All three walked over to a tall stack of boxes and began to push them over to reveal what was behind them. A large pile of cords with plugs were revealed, alongside with a huge electrical box with different colored wires.

"This looks like one of the steps. Lets get to work."

Hanoka read a piece of paper aloud to the others, "According to the information that Mrs. Nishizumi has given us, we are suppose to retrieve a small electronic part that helps one of the underwater thrusters function properly. This part should be found within this generator right here." she banged on the giant machine behind her, "However, we need to power it up first in order it open it."

"This should be easy. All we have to do is find the circuit breakers." said Rie.

"Maybe not." Hanoka suddenly said, "The location of the breakers are in another room that's far away from here from what this map says. This means that one of us has to go to the circuit breaker room and start to flip on each switch until it activates the power to this chamber."

Emi sighed, "Well, isn't that great. Who thinks that they're brave enough to go find the nearest power room in these dark corridors?"

After a few seconds of silence, Hanoka answered, "I will volunteer if you want me to?"

"Wait, are you sure? What if you run into something on the way there?" Rie interrupted.

"Come on, think about it. This ship has probably been abandoned for at least two decades or so. The chances that you're going to run into anyone unknown down here is very slim." Emi rolled her eyes.

"I'm just worried about where Noriko is."

"Don't worry about it, Noriko is fine. She probably just took a wrong turn on the way down or something."

"If I find her, I'll bring her back." Hanoka said hoping to calm Rie down.

Then she left for the power room. On the way there, she began to think to herself about where Noriko got separated at from them. If she was lost from them, she must be worried. Hanoka had one of the flashlights of the group, but it was the one that was really low on battery. The sinking feeling began to settle in that something could of happened to Noriko on the way down, but she didn't know what. Hanoka continued to walk down the long dark corridor until she approached another descending stairwell. The overall vacancy of the lower levels of the ship was both nerve-racking and disorientating. The loneliness made it worse on top of that, with no lights on to guide her path. As she steeped down the staircase, the creaking sound of the metal steps below her feet echoed the downward chamber.

She approached another door at the bottom of the staircase with a sign near it. The words: **ELECTRIC OUPOST ROOM - KIOSK 12 **was written in bold Japanese lettering on the sign. The room inside was full of computers and roller chairs, with a steel pillar in the middle of it. She walked over to a fuse box that had super tape covering the lock that reframed it from swinging open. Hanoka grabbed the handle and gave it a hard tug, resulting in the entire fuse box door coming off its hinges. She took a good long look at the wires and buttons and finally pressed on a button that looked like the machine that she wanted to power on.

"There we go." she sighed while wiping the hair away from her face, "Now, I can go back t..."

Hanoka heard something rush by behind her. She slowly turned around and saw nothing in the gloomy shadows, but heard something breathing in the room with her. With caution, Hanoka tiptoed to the door and went back out into the hallway. The beam of her flashlight began to flicker on and off rapidly, symbolizing the battery's near end.

"No No No. Please don't die out on me now." she pleaded to herself.

Unfortunately, it did and soon she was in totally darkness. The noise from earlier returned and began to increase in volume as it approached her. All that Hanoka had left to do was produce a barely audible squeak before she collapsed from a sharp painful blow to the back of her head.

Back on the surface, Jagdpanther-Chan, along with her crew and two other Panther teams were searching through the streets of the abandoned city center.

"Man, this is more boring than taking notes for science class! When are we going back to school?" complained one of the Panther crew members.

"In a while. Just be patient, will ya?" the tanks Commander snapped back.

The snow underneath the tanks' treads was slowly beginning to pile up as another layer of frozen precipitation was drifting down from above. The temperature had fallen another few degrees or so, as the air began to get more crisp. Clouds of warm breath were coming out of the girls' mouth's.

"It's about four o' clock. School doesn't let out for another hour." Jagdpanther-Chan mentioned.

"There's nothing exciting about this ship. It's cold, old and dirty. Three things that I dislike the most."

"Fine, lets go search the school then." suggested one of the Panther Commanders, "There might be something interesting there."

Though none of the other girls wanted to, they all agreed on the idea. When the tanks arrived, they noticed a faint line of track prints in the snow.

"Some other crew was here before we were it looks like." said a Panther gunner.

"Time to investigate then." said Jagdpanther-Chan.

They all stopped their vehicles in front of the opened doors to Seawide Justice's Tank Garage. Looking inside, the girls got the same thing that Maho's and Erika's crews found. An abandoned storage with tanks covered by tarps and three Panzer IV bodies at the sidelines. Then, one of the girls noticed a KV-1 in the corner of her eye and pointed to it.

"Wonder what's inside that unfinished KV that's of use?"

"I don't know? Go check it out." said the annoyed Panther Commander.

"I'm not going over there. It's all dirty and stuff." she made an expression of disgust on her face.

Jagdpanther-Chan stepped into the conversation, "Well, if none of you woose's are going to look in it, then I will."

"Look who's playing hero here." muttered one of the Jagdpanther crew members.

The group all watched as the Commander of the Jagdpanther walked over to the KV-1 and climbed on top of it's turret. Then she slipped herself into the turret of the heavy tank. Not a second later, she came jumping out of the tank, covering her mouth with her hands and with her eyes shut.

"What's the matter, Commander?" asked her teams Gunner.

The short haired commander respond with a series of coughs before catching her breath again. The others had backed away from when the fit began.

"I don't know, but it was awful." she gasped before panting.

The others looked at each other confused. They didn't know what she meant by "It was awful". They looked at each other for a moment and then turned back to Jagdpanther-Chan, who was recovering from her upset attitude.

"Let's just go. There's nothing important here for us." she said walking past the other to her Tank Destroyer.

The confused crews returned to their vehicles as well and left. Jagdpanther-Chan never told them what she saw inside the KV-1. Back below decks, Emi and Rie waited for Hanoka's return. The power suddenly came on in the machine that they were waiting to access, for the machine had begun to rumble and crackle with movement.

"That's that then. Looks like Hanoka did her job right." Emi said with some sort of relief that the waiting was over, "Help me with this, Rie-san."

The two lifted the top off of the machine to reveal a hole full of outlet-like plug-in's.

"Do you think that's where those plugs fit in at?" Rie insisted.

Emi scratched her head, "Yeah. Go fetch those and bring them here."

Plugging in the plugs into their correct locations, the machine opened up a small compartment with a tiny black metal box in it and with a small set of wires coming out of one end of the box connectors. Rie looked at the picture diagram in her hands and noticed that the part that Shiho needed was right in front of them.

"That looks like what we need. Do you think?" Rie asked.

"Has to be. We did all the steps that Mrs. Nishizumi's paper says to do." Emi wiped the sweat off her face, "Collect it and lets head back up to everyone else."

"Where is Hanoka?"

Emi shrugged her shoulders as she got up to leave the room. Rie grabbed the flashlight and ran down the hallway.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

"She has to be here somewhere. I know it."

"Come back! We need that light to go back to the surface!" Emi called but Rie had run around the corner of the hall.

She tried to follow the voice but soon lost the sound a minute later. Frustrated and dazed, Emi tried to look for a way back to the surface, figuring that here friend will return shortly with Hanoka in hand. Straining her eyes in the dark, she began to wander down another corridor. She heard a thumping noise from behind her. Turning around, she saw nothing.

"Is this some kind of sick joke, Rie?"

There was no response.

Emi groaned, "You've always been the childish one of us. Always playing your games and such."

Coming around the corner, she saw that there was a piece of paper on the ground that she hadn't noticed before.

"Hmm? Whats this?"

Picking it up, she read to what appeared to be a letter to someone about the flood water levels that had increased and that immediate assistance was required from the surface. The problem was that the note dated back to March 16, 1986. Emi frowned in confusion, wondering why a note from Nineteen Eighty Six suddenly popped out of nowhere. The paper was badly ripped and fragile, with some of the lower print blotted out with water to create an inky smudge.

"Maybe this is was what caused everyone to leave the vessel?" she mumbled to herself.

She heard footsteps from down the darkened corridor. Emi slowly rose to her feet and looked into the gloom. She waited a few more seconds for the footsteps to come closer, but nothing showed up. The leading technician girl had enough and began to search for the noise. After slowly navigating down a stairwell covered in cobwebs, she saw a large shape on the ground. Coming closer, she discovered a large red hole was bashed into the back of the bodies skull. Emi dropped the electrical part on the ground, realizing who it was.

"No. That can't be..." she gasped in fear after turning the body over, "Hanoka!"

The lifeless body of Hanoka didn't answer back. Tears began to well up in her eyes as Emi backed up against the hallway wall in terror. She closed her eyes and tried to forget the ugly sight. Something was drawling near her. She opened her eyes to see who it was. In the surrounding pitch black halls of the lower levels, Emi's blood curdling scream echoed loudly through the corridor.

"I don't get it? Where could they possibly be?" Tammy wondered to herself.

All the teams had regrouped at the roundabout with Shiho to return back home to Kuromorimine. Within the sea of heads in front of her, Shiho heard the sound of the Jagdpanther-Chan coughing. It was a snotty bronchial hacking sound from deep in her throat that was really beginning to get on her teammates' nerves from the sight of it.

"Where are those four other girls at, Mrs. Nishizumi?" asked one of the front row girls.

"I am not sure, but I have a bad feeling about this, though. she said back, "Please look forward here, students!"

Everyone turned to her, "We have an unexpected disappearance within our groups, but I won't keep you girls here in the cold to wait for them."

"They're students, though." blurted out the Panzer III Commander.

"That isn't your concern. We will send some staff here to find them. Until then, you girls need to return back to campus. Come along now and get to your vehicles."

As they were loading up, Erika came over to Maho and Tammy.

"See, Kommandant. I told you that this is a scheme by the Instructor." she whispered.

"That isn't anything you need to worry about Erika. Go to your team and I'll talk to you when we return to the school."

The teams followed Shiho's transport back across the ship to the tunnel. She dreaded trying to explain to the staff and the authorities about what happened on the Seawide Justice Girls Academy carrier and wasn't looking forward to telling about the disappearances. When they came to the connecting bridge between the two school vessels, Shiho stopped everybody.

"Drive cautiously over this. It might be hazardous." she called.

Shiho Nishizumi looked out to the frozen sea.

She noticed the sun behind the dark cloudy layer was beginning to set over the horizon and that the large chunks of glaciers in the sea below were becoming more and more darker, as a barley glowing blue color was illuminating from it's surface. From behind her transport van, Shiho noticed that all the tanks had stopped.

"Whats going on now?" she asked herself.

"After getting out, she saw Jagdpanther-Chan hop down from her T.D. and fell to her knees. With a harsh gaging noise, she began to vomit on the ground near her tank, her shoulders flexing back and forth as her neck thrusted forward and back. About twenty seconds later, the Commander's stomach had finally calmed down, but the smell of the mess she'd had made had filled the air of the area around her.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Nishizumi. I couldn't make it to the edge. I had to..."

"Just stay put, wait till you feel better before walking back to your vehicle." the Instructor said holding out her hands.

"No, I'm fine. I just felt..."

The Jagdpanther Commanders cheeks puffed up, as she was sure that she was going to throw up again. Nothing but the sound of a dry-heave came out of her mouth. Her eyes began to water as she attempted to get up on her own. Inside the Jagdpanther, the Loader began to cough too.

"Mrs. Nishizumi? Do you think there was something weird up there?" questioned Erika.

"I don't know? I thought you girls were searching?" Shiho answered in return, "Isn't that right, girls?"

Nobody responded. They were all worried about Jagdpanther-Chan, who was shivering and staring down at her pool of vomit. Her eyes were widened and her skin color had turned pale. She then got up to her feet and began to climb up to her tank.

"You'll be fine when we get back home." commented the Commander of one of the Jagdpanzer IV teams.

Jagdpanther-Chan gave a weak nod, followed by another cough. With the help of Shiho to climb up, the girl got back into her place.

"Very well, let's proceed." Shiho ordered.

Everyone revved their engines up again and started to follow their Tankery Instructor again. On top of her vehicle, Jagdpanther-Chan felt a painful sting in her stomach as she inhaled a breath of chilled air. Then she closed her eyes, clenched her belly and slowly lowered her head till it touched the rim of her Commanders Hatch.

By the time that they have returned back to campus, one of the Jagdpanzer IV Commanders and the Panzer III Commander began coughing too...

* * *

**Author's Note: Please note, that there might be names of other GuP characters in the story (such as Emi), but they are NOT the same character as you think. The only same characters are the main Kuromorimine girls of the team. Don't forget to review the story if you wish.**


	4. Chapter 4 - Under Quarantine

**Author's Note: The following chapter may contain some graphic imagery and I recommend you don't eat or drink anything while reading this.** **Viewers discretion is advised.**

* * *

CHAPTER 4 - Under Quarintine

* * *

A pair of faculty members rushed by Maho's dorm, where she and Erika were sitting around and studying for a science test that they were taking the next day. The curiosity of the two to investigate the noise outside the door grew with each footstep that passed by.

"Suppose you know what all the commotion is about, Kommandant?" Erika wondered.

"Let it be. Somebody is probably getting too rowdy in their dorm or something of the sort." Maho clarified.

"Not if there is that many people rushing by in the hall like that."

"Why are you so concerned about it so much?"

Erika didn't respond to the question. Maho took in a breath and led out.

Maho finally spoke, "If you wish to see what is going on, then go ahead. I need to stay here and study for tomorrow."

Erika got up to her feet and turned to her Sensha-do leader, "I'll let you know what I've seen."

The Tiger II Commander closed the door as she stepped out into the hallway. Staring down the corridor, Erika saw a large group of people, rushing by with the Panzer III Commander in her arms. The girls face was flustered and coated with a layer of sweat. Plus, her glasses were not on her face but were instead in between the fingers of her trembling hand. The girls eyes were shut and a red coloring had began to cover the lids of her eyes.

Itsumi backed into Maho's dorm as the rushing crowd flew by her. Maho looked up from her studies.

"Well, your back early." she replied.

"I just saw that group of people run past me with the Panzer III commander in their arms." Erika reported.

"Like carrying here?" Maho asked.

"Yes and she looked really ill. You couldn't tell if she fainted or not." Erika exclaimed.

Maho looked up at her friend, assuming that it was a prank waited for her friend to burst out in laughter. However, it never came. Maho worried about her team, for she knew that a Tankery Club that is in disorder, would soon lead to failure. Her mother would be disappointed and her team would blame her for their well being not fully in shape. She looked at Erika with a blank face.

"Kommandant? Is something wrong?"

"Let's see what the problem is. From this evenings situation with the Jagdpanther Commander till now, I feel that something very weird is stirring up." said Maho.

"Should we go investigate the schools clinic first?" Erika offered.

"Yes. If anything, the problem might be there." she answered.

After leaving the dorm, the two girls walked down the stairways and halls to the main entrance of one of the many student dormitory buildings. Outside, the two walked together in the cold. The night sky was clear and the clouds had floated away, giving sight to the crescent moon and a sky full of stars.

"Goodness, what is the temperature out here?" Erika shivered.

Maho took in a breath and exhaled, giving out a white cloud of hot breath.

"I have no idea, but it feels like its only getting colder out here."

Erika sighed, "At least there's no snow tonight."

"We don't know that." Maho suddenly said, "Besides, it's only 7:30 at night. It won't start probably till later."

"Better wear some heavier sleepwear while getting some shuteye."

The two arrived at the Commoners Building. After going inside, the hallway greeted them with the warmth of the indoors. The two wiped their boots off on the black mat placed near the door. They continued on until they reached the Nurse's Office on the buildings second floor. Walking in through the door, they were stopped by a staff member.

"Excuse me, do you have a medical emergency?" the woman asked.

"No, we came to see a friend." Maho said thinking that the staff member would let the answer slide.

"Is she one of the sick patients?" the woman asked again.

The girls looked at each other, "We think so, but we're not quite sure."

"If she is, then I'm sorry, but you can't see her. The room she is in is currently closed off to anyone that's not sick with the same problem."

"Could we at least look through the window to see if its the right girl that we're referring to?" Erika offered.

The staff member thought about it for a moment before answering to Erika's question, "Very well. Please though, make it quick. I don't need you two to make a sudden scene."

"We will. Don't worry." assured Maho.

The woman's face turned into worry, "I do worry. A lot of girls have come through this door in the last three hours, all of them with the same symptoms."

"Were most of them in clothing from the Tankery team at all?"

"Yes." she nodded, "I counted at least six total. The rest were student in ordinary uniforms like you two."

"Geez, I wonder what's happened to them all." Erika looked at her Kommandant.

"I'm pretty sure that its the cold or something going around campus again. We are in a chilly environment after all." the woman addressed with a chuckle.

"Right. Well, I guess we'll take a look now." Maho said.

"Go ahead, just don't stick around the door for too long or the nurses might think your up to trouble."

Looking through the window from the office hall, the two were introduced to a room full of sick girls under the covers of the beds. One of them had her face under the covers of the bed while another one had her face buried in her pillow. Then the two noticed the Panzer III commander open her eyes. Her nose was running and her eyes were watering as she turned over in her assigned bed.

"She doesn't look well. Maybe we should get going." Maho said inching away from the window.

Suddenly from inside the room, all the staff and nurses began to walk over to a bed with a girl, who was shaking under her covers. Maho and Erika realized who it was.

"Is that the Jagdpanther..."

The Commander started screaming from inside the room as she fell out of her bed. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she stared at the floor. As her screaming stopped, her throat erupted into a deep crackling noise. It was like the sound of someone gurgling a drink in their throat.

"Stand clear everyone!" a nurse exclaimed, "This might get bad."

Jagdpanther-Chans' jaws flung open as vomit began to pour out of her mouth. When it ended, there were a set of hard intakes of hyperventilation before a new symptom appeared: A bright spray of blood that shot out of her mouth like a bottle of spray-able paint. The wall and small bedside table in front of Jagdpanther-Chan was soon covered in a dense red foam that seemed almost bubbly from the looks of it. The girls in the beds around her began to panic and scream. Even a few bursted into tears at the sight of such a horrific incident. Two more times, JP-Chan vomited a mix of blood and stomach acids until she collapsed on the floor with no fight left in her.

"Please calm down. Just stay where you are and you will all be fine." one of the nurses assured trying to calm down the other sick girls.

Maho and Erika almost lost their balance to the sight of the scene. Both of them immediately rushed out, with the word's: "Get this girl and everyone else into Quarantine at once!" trailing behind them. As the walked back outside, Maho stopped on the walkway.

"Hold on a second." Erika stuttered, "I need a moment please."

The outside cold seem more calm that the inside warmth of the campus' Commoners Building. While waiting around, Maho heard Erika sniffling behind her back. She turned around to see her ally sitting on the steps with tears rolling down her cheeks. The feeling of guilt began to flow through Maho's veins as she sat down next to Erika.

"What...What the hell happened in there?" Erika whimpered.

The Kommandant had never heard such a fearful tone from her Vice-Captain before and placed an arm around her.

"It's alright, my dear friend." she whispered, "I feel the same way that you do."

"It's that God forsaken school vessel! That's how this all started. I just know it!"

"Come on, we can discuss this matter when we return back to my dorm." Maho said helping Erika up to her feet.

The two walked through the quiet night, with the sound of snow chunking under their boots. The chilled air calmed down the nerves of both girls as they walked around their dorm building. In the darkness, Nishizumi Maho looked out towards the humongous tank garage and wondered, "Is the tanks the cause of this sickness or is it something else beyond that?"

When the two returned to the door of Maho's dorm, Tammy came walking down the hall with a smile on her face.

"Hi there. How are you two?" she greeted.

Maho and Erika looked at each other before turning back to Tammy.

Tammy's smile disappeared, "What's wrong?"

Maho felt her stomach twist as she opened her mouth to speak, "Come in with us. We need to talk about something important."

Meanwhile, across the campus, Shiho was asleep at desk in her room. This was the place that she would stay while the school vessel was temporarily out at sea. It was also a place that she could concentrate in times of stress or business. She was dreaming about the Seawide Justice Girls Academy and how she would lead her tankery team to victory against theirs. She remembered when she was in her teenage years at Kuromorimine and how she was the star of the Sensha-do team. Those good times to her came to a halt, when she fought against Seawide Justice in Nineteen Eighty Two. The memory was very faint to her at the moment, but what she did remember was a gun of a Panzer go off behind her and an explosion mixed with screaming after that.

The Instructor woke up with a shout of the word, "NO!" on her breath. There was knocking on her door that soon turned to a hard pounding sound when she didn't answer it.

"The door is unlocked." she groaned and rubbed her eyes.

She thought better of herself of how she addressed the situation as unexpected and rude. When the person did come into the room, she was immediate on the apology. Looking up from her seat, her eyes came in contact with Ms. Adachi: The Kuromorimine School Vessel Chief of Security.

"I'm sorry, Miss. I was waking up."

"Its fine. I'd expect that you would get tired easily with an occupation as Tankery Instructor." Adachi replied, "I have the news of the missing girls that you spoke of and from the list you gave us, we have failed to locate these girls."

Shiho thought at that very moment that her career was over, considering the fact that she lost four girls for a purpose that she thought was best.

"However, one of the four was found. Her name is Rie Fukushiba and she was located about an hour or so ago."

A sigh of sweet relief came from Shiho as she folded her hands against her head.

"Where is Rie at now?" Shiho asked.

"She's safe and sound. We will continue this search from the fact that one of the missing adolescence have been located." informed Chief Adachi.

Shiho gave a silent acknowledgment before Chief Adachi left the room. Shiho then resumed the work that she was doing before she fell asleep. Later that night, while Maho was sleeping, she heard the sound of voices and footsteps in the hallway. She figured that it was her imagination, but it turned out to be real. The next morning, she found out that the entire Jagdpanther, Panzer III and one of the four Jagdpanzer IV teams had went to the nurse that night due to sickness reasons.


End file.
